Coal-hydrogasification process development. Third annual technical progress report, Government fiscal year 1981

This third annual technical progress report summarizes work performed during Government Fiscal Year 1981 on coal hydrogasification process development. The several program tasks are structured to support logical progress toward process development and, eventually, process commercialization. During this year, limited progress was made on construction of a 3/4-TPH coal feed rate integrated process development unit (IPDU) facility for conducting continuous hydrogasification tests of up to 30 days duration. A chemical kinetic model of coal particle hydropyrolysis has been expanded to account for hydroconversion to a generic slate of gaseous and liquid products, and this model was then used to correlate successfully carbon conversion results measured in previous flash hydropyrolysis experiments with both Kentucky No. 9 bituminous and Montana Rosebud subbituminous coals. Subsequently, that coal pyrolysis model was utilized to improve an earlier computerized model for entrained-flow FHP coal conversion reactors. The improved model's predictions were checked against experimental conversion results and other data from 25 tests in the bituminous coal FHP data base with satisfactory agreement. The Lummus Company, under subcontract to provide a preliminary design of a complete commercial hydrogasification plant to product 250 MMM Btu/day of SNG from coal, completed their predesign process optimization and subsystem evaluations andmore » issued a formal Predesign Report. Materials surveillance activities in support of the IPDU system were mainly concerned with obtaining archive specimens and data from components being fabricated, accumulating samples of alternative materials to be exposed during IPDU operation, and constructing an acoustic emission system for inservice monitoring of key components.« less